Knowing in a Single Thought Every Dharma of the Three Times
The hymn continues: every buddha's own subtle wisdom, pure as space itself, clearly comprehends every practice, mind unattached to anything at all. In a single thought, fully understanding every dharma of the three times, knowing well the faculties of every sentient being, according with what each one needs in order to be transformed. Knowing every affliction present in the minds of sentient beings, every wholesome and unwholesome karma, and knowing entirely everything they delight in — and proclaiming the true Dharma for their sake accordingly.
Knowing Every Delight, Teaching the True Dharma Accordingly
「諸佛微妙智， 清淨如虛空，
明了一切行， 其心無所著。
一念悉了達， 三世一切法，
善知眾生根， 隨其所應化。
眾生心煩惱， 諸業善不善，
所樂皆悉知， 而為說正法。」
"Every buddha's own subtle wisdom, pure as space itself,
Clearly comprehends every practice, mind unattached to anything at all.
In a single thought, fully understanding every dharma of the three times,
Knowing well the faculties of every sentient being, according with what each one needs in order to be transformed.
Knowing every affliction present in the minds of sentient beings, every wholesome and unwholesome karma,
Knowing entirely everything they delight in, and proclaiming the true Dharma for their sake."
These three stanzas function as a hinge within the hymn, moving from praise of the tathāgatas' own general wisdom to the specific claim that grounds everything about to follow: knowledge of "every wholesome and unwholesome karma" and "everything they delight in" is precisely what determines which particular vision a given being will behold. Fazang reads this passage as the hymn's own explanation, offered just before the fact, for the extraordinary catalogue of divergent visions about to unfold — different beings will see different buddhas and different pure lands not arbitrarily, but exactly according to the specific karma and disposition this stanza says the buddhas already know in full.
Part 435 Complete
These three pivotal stanzas are now given in full. Part 436 turns to the hymn's own great catalogue of divergent visions — beginning with some who see the tathāgata seated, filling the worlds of the ten directions, while others, obstructed by their own past wrongs, remain unable to see him even at close range.
Continue to Part 436 →